iarnegie Endowment for International Peace DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION Publication No. 14 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR I CHILE AND THE WAR BY CARLOS SILVA VILDOSOLA II THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR BY NICOLAS F. LOPEZ Translation from the Spanish BY Peter H. Goldsmith WASHINGTON, D. C. 1917 '" V '"'t. .'.■■■''" ■;.'ii' . '■'>j "/■'■'■"I ■ >, i-;'^t'. «t' ;■ 'V.if !*\J''-fltv*,*..v''>j>*^rJ^««'' 'vri'A'iK^ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION Publication No. 14 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR I CHILE AND THE WAR BY CARLOS SILVA VILDOSOLA II THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR BY NICOLAS F. LOPEZ Translation from the Spanish BY Peter H. Goldsmith WASHINGTON, D. C. 1917 t- By FLB ^3 1981 CONTENTS Page Introduction iv I. Chile and the War,. by Carlos Silva Vildosola 1 II. The attitude of Ecuador, by Nicolas F. Lopez 21 III. Publications of the Endowment 29 INTRODUCTION Too little has been heard of the recent movements of public opinion in the South American countries, in so far as these movements relate to the war or are caused by it. It is with no small satisfaction therefore that there are here presented two papers, one of them descriptive of the attitude of Chile toward the European belligerents, and the other descriptive of the attitude of Ecuador toward the United States. The paper on Chile was published early in 1916. The author, Sr. Carlos Silva Vildosola, was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1847, and he has won high repute in his chosen career of journalism. For many years he was the director of El Mercurio, which is perhaps the leading daily of Chile. He has been honored by his government in various ways and he has served as a member of several international congresses. Sr. Silva Vildosola is at present the correspondent representing El Mercurio with the Allied armies. The paper on Ecuador was published as a pamphlet at Quito in June, 1917, with the title "Nuestra Actitud." The writer, Sr. Nicolas F. Lopez, is a native of Ecuador and colonel of artillery in the army of that country. He has 'held several governmental posts, including that of consul at Buenos Aires. He is an occasional contributor to the periodical press of his own and neighboring coun- tries. Nicholas Murray Butler, Acting Director. September 6, 1917 CHILE AND THE WAR By Carlos Silva Vildosola I FOREIGN RESIDENTS In the statistics of European emigration to Latin America, Chile appears with low figures, lower even than those of the countries that have a climate and conditions favorable to progress less attractive to the emigrant. Her position of geographical isolation between the Cordillera of the Andes, which was penetrated by a railway in 1910 only, and the Pacific ocean, which had to be reached by passing through the strait of Magellan, has made Chile a country difftcult of access. The climate and topography of Chile render necessary there a hard struggle with nature in order to wrest her agricultural and mineral treasures from her, which does not permit the creation of the rapid fortunes of which emigrants dream. This same isolation and this necessity for prolonged effort have made the Chilean race, somewhat insular in their national pride and their fanatic and noble attachment to their native land, distrustful of the stranger without failing to be hospitable and generous, and resolved to preserve the purity of their nationality. There exists in Chile a strong national sentiment, which is sure of itself, jealous of its preponderance in the land inhabited by its fathers, capable of effecting by itself the progress of the republic, and which, without disdaining intellectual and material commerce with other peoples, profoundly desires to preserve the management of its inheritance without foreign interference. Chilean character, as an eminent English writer, Mr. James Bryce (now Viscount Bryce), has remarked in a recent work, is well defined, and the unity and ardor of national feeling are greater than in any other country of Spanish America. According to the last census of the republic, there were in Chile in 1907, in a total population of 3,249,279 inhabitants, 134,524 foreigners. From this num- ber must be deducted, in order to appreciate the European elements, some 50,000 Peruvians and Bolivians, who for the most part belong to the provinces annexed in 1881, and about 6,000 Argentines. 2 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR The number of residents who came from the belHgerent nations engaged in the present war was as follows : [British 9,845 Allies ^French 9,800 [Italians 13,023 ^ ^ • , . (Germans 10,724 Central empires. ^^Austrians 3,813 There were besides in Chile some 18,000 Spaniards, 2,000 Swiss, 1,000 Americans, 1,700 Ottoman subjects, and insignificant groups of divers other nationalities. Those whose names occur under the denomination of Austrians are almost in their totality Dalmatians or from the other countries subjected by Austria- Hungary, who do not consider themselves bound by moral ties to the empire, and who left their country in order not to live under a foreign yoke. The so- called Turks are all Armenians or Syrians of Christian faith who are in a similar position with reference to Turkey. These statistics probably have not undergone any marked changes during the last eight years, as there has been no appreciable movement of immigration. In any case, it seems certain to me that the several groups have maintained more or less the same respective proportions that they had formerly. The national and the foreign populations of Chile increase constantly but slowly. In 1854, with a total population of 1,439,000 inhabitants, Chile had 19,669 foreigners. In 1875 the total population reached 2,075,000 and the for- eigners, 25,199. In 1885 the number of resident foreigners increased suddenly on account of the annexation of the Peruvian and Bolivian provinces, and it amounted to 87,077, in a total population of 2,527,000. In 1895 there were 79,056 foreigners, in a total population of 2,712,000. II FRENCH AND ENGLISH INFLUENCES These colonies do not represent in reality the commercial and intellectual relations of their respective nations with Chile. Thus, for example, the Spaniards constituted the most numerous colony, and our commerce of every kind with Spain has been very slight. In numerical importance the Spanish colony is followed by the Italian, and only within the last years have there been relations of any significance with Italy. From the beginning of her existence, Chile received the influence of France and England. English seamen organized the Chilean fleet; French soldiers fought in the battles for independence; French books, ideas and spirit inspired CHILE AND THE WAR the first intellectual movements; and British principles of public liberty were incorporated in our national constitution. Public instruction was organized in accordance with ideas imported from France, and the generations that gave to the republic its initial character studied history, philosophy, law and the physical sciences in texts translated from the French. In this favor participated the English economists of the great liberal school whose doctrines were diffused throughout the country by M. Courcelle- Seneuil. It was in their time that a member of the Institute of France, M. Claude Gay, wrote the history of Chile, and another Frenchman, M. Aime Pissis, produced the first complete map of the country and made a study of its physical geography. The Chilean codes took the.ir origin from the French, and our civil code, a masterpiece of judicial genius, original knowledge and" wise adaptation, found its inspiration in the code of Napoleon. Our jurisprudence has drunk and drinks at French fountains. The harbingers of independence and the first men who in the name of liberty spoke to their compatriots upon political doctrines had fresh in mind their readings from the French theories of the eighteenth century. later, English parliamentary procedure and the study of American democracy served only to modify these tendencies without altering their essential quality. The arts always received French influences after Chileans began to interest themselves in painting, sculpture and architecture. In music we owe to the Italians the formation of our taste. Even the Spanish schools of painting were not well studied in Chile, except during recent years, when they have become of great benefit to us. Whoever visits Chilean bookshops or libraries will be surprised to find in, the best of them a greater number of books written in the French language than in our own Spanish, whether they be works of science, law, history or literature. The French language has been compulsory in the establishments of the state that confer the degree of bachelor, and although during recent years it has given place greatly to the teaching of English and German, the Chilean youth continue to prefer to learn French. There hardly exists a man of any intellectual culture— professor, lawyer, physician, engineer, politician, writer— who can not at least read French, and who does not make use of this language for study and recreation. France has been for Chileans the center of light, the inspirer whose intel- lectual manifestations have had the power to achieve universality, to spread through the world with a special faculty of adaptation to all the peoples of near or remote Latin origin. Without doubt the number of Chileans who have been affected by English influence is less, because of the difficulty of the language, and the very originality of the British institutions and mentality, which make them assimilable with diffi- 4 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR culty by peoples of our origin; but its liberalism, its schools of economy, its literature and art have awakened great sympathy and have been the object of study and admiration. Ill THE GERMAN PENETRATION A book interesting in the extreme could be written upon the attempt at com- mercial and intellectual penetration which the Germans have made in Chile under the auspices of their government during the last twenty-five or thirty years. The German colonization which the government of Chile introduced toward the middle of the nineteenth century in the southern province of Valdivia does not form a part of this movement. Those Germans were the sons of the old Germany divided into small kingdoms, who left their respective nations in an economic and political crisis, in the days in which the dreams of the liberal Germans, the last idealists that there were of the race, were banished to give place to the ideas that have produced modern Germany. The colonists of Valdivia, in the main agriculturalists and honest and laborious workers in the small industries, have lived in peace in this province of ours, without always teaching their language to their children who made of themselves true Chileans, as strangers to the imperialistic tendencies which they had not known, and pleased to change themselves into citizens of a modest and free nation. As Ljord Bryce says, in the book already mentioned, and in a form that it is better not to translate: "they have settled down and have become completely domesticated." The work of penetration began with the professors contracted for by the government of Chile, as they have had diflferent opportunities during thirty odd years, although it became intensified and was adjusted to a plan only upon the ar- rival in Chile some years later of a numerous group of German officers engaged as instructors for the army by General Korner, a German ex-captain, who after passing some years in Chile, had come to be, thanks to his intervention in the civil war of 1891, the supreme arbiter of the military institutions of Chile. The government of Chile and its counselors followed in this respect the fashion of the day. The war of 1870 had awakened in all the world, even in France itself, an interest in everything German : sciences, pedagogy, military methods, commercial and industrial systems. They were the days in which French authors discoursed upon the inferiority of the Latin races, and people sought to discover the secret of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons. A great frozen wind of discouragement, of self-distrust, passed over the world that was engendered by Rome. Almost simultaneously with the arrival in Chile of those splendid elements of propaganda, German banks were established in the country, the number of CHILE AND THE WAR i) great commercial firms of that nationality was increased, the category of the legation of Germany in Chile was raised, — until then often in charge of con- suls who exercised the function of charges d'affaires, — an active diplomacy to interest German merchants in Chilean business was undertaken, and the interest which the emperor, the government and the people of Germany felt in Chile was proclaimed with all formality. Very few Chilean students took advantage of the facilities which the Ger- man universities offered them. If indeed a few young physicians went to per- fect their studies in them, they did not on this account fail to hasten to Paris, or to visit the English hospitals. Nevertheless, many officers of the army were sent to the German schools and regiments. The action of the military instructors in Chile was more fruitful for Ger- many than that of the professors. These latter had a more restricted field, and they did not possess all the liberty that they might have desired in order to apply their methods and spread their tendencies. The resistance of the national elements was great, and it was exercised in the schools with a freedom that it could not have in the army. The militant Catholics saw in the work of these Protestant and free-thinking professors a danger for the religious unity of the nation, and they ardently com- bated them. Perhaps on this account the professors found support among the liberal elements. Yet there were not wanting men of very advanced ideas and free of all prejudice, like the celebrated poet and teacher, don Eduardo de la Barra, who waged an energetic and continuous campaign in the press and in their chairs against the German professors. In his brilliant pamphlets, models of elegance in form and in causticity, de la Barra qualified as "German en- chantment" the effort which the authorities exerted to make contract for new instructors of that nationality. In the army, over which General Kroner exercised an unlimited authority, the work was easier, and it was a very rapid, violent and sudden transforma- tion, thanks to the activity of the Germans and to the intelligence of the Chileans who have a marked faculty for assimilation and an innate liking for things military. The Prussian regulations were translated and applied, the military life was changed to its foundations, and it was all done with an unheard of precipitancy, without adapting, without ascertaining if it was best or not for the country, by means of copying mechanically. On a certain good day the Chileans beheld their soldiers uniformed in Prussian tunics, with green, red and yellow borders, with many adornments and much gold braid, dark heads covered with helmets terminating in a point, file past with that parade step which caricature has made known thrpughout the world. This exact reproduction of the regulations, the methods, the uniforms and even the utensils for the use of the army facilitated the other aspect of the re- 6 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR form, which consisted in the acquirement by the government of Chile, in Germany, of whatever might be necessary for the army, from the Krupp cannon and Mauser rifles, to the shoes for the horses and the cloth of divers colors with which the soldiers should clothe themselves according to the Prussian usage and tradition. Protests were not wanting. A group of generals, veterans of glorious cam- paigns, was sent into retirement as a punishment for having murmured against a reform that seemed at the very least imprudently precipitate., Later, and in proportion as the German instructors returned to their coun- try, the Chilean officers accomplished a very intelligent work of adaptation, which, although it preserved the general spirit of the German methods, had much that was original, that was appropriate to the people of Chile. The reform is losing little by little the character which the servile imitation, made under pressure in the first years, gave it. In the meanwhile the national spirit was awakened in the country, and there v/as visible a reaction against the tendency to import into Chile a culture so opposite to the national genius, so foreign to its traditions, so impregnated with fundamental principles contrary to those that ought to serve as the basis of our own democracy. Both in the intellectual realms and among the laboring class a well matured nationalism began to oppose itself to the imitation of Germany. The first professors who reached Chile twenty years ago came upon their own initiative, and they were selected by the agents of the government of Chile. Many of them are still in the country to which they have linked their destiny, and in which they have wrought a good work ; and they are men worthy of esteem. After Germany began to unfold in a more open manner her plan of domina- tion, of absorption, of universal conquest, every time the government of Chile desired to make a contract with some German, it had to address itself to the government of the empire, and it was the government of Germany that chose the individuals designated to come to our country in the capacity of military in- structors, professors or civil engineers of railways. Results were very varied. Many of the new-comers worked as political and commercial agents of Germany. Instead of trying to adapt themselves to the national spirit and respecting the idiosyncracies of our race, as the first pro- fessors had done, whose service to public instruction in Chile no one would dare to deny, these other direct representatives of the policy of the empire sought to override all and to dominate without hindrance. A saving instinct produced manifestations of resistance on the part of the Chilean elements, and these with practical results. A professor under contract to organize the Instituto de Anatomia Patolo- gica, to whom all conceded competency in his branch, was compelled to return to Germany because neither th^ Chilean professors nor the students could tol- erate his insolence. An engineer, to whom had been confided the general direc- CHILE AND THE WAR . 7 tion of the railways, had to retire because of an absolute inability to adapt himself to the character and ways of the Chileans. In neither case did resistance spring from a blind opposition to a foreigner : the former was replaced with felici- tous success by an Italian professor and the latter by a Belgian engineer who remained for many years in charge. In the midst of their commercial advance, which was great in Chile, as it was everywhere else; with the prestige of their military triumphs of 1870, the origin of the fashion of imitating whatever was German; in spite of the effica- cious activities of the military instructors and the visits of the Chilean officers to Germany; in spite of their professors, among whom, as I repeat, there have been men who could boast of a general popularity; an.^ although there were many Chileans who admired the Germanic power of organization, the Germans have never been able to penetrate the Chilean soul. The agents of the plan of penetration were not able by all effort to under- stand the national character or to adopt themselves to its needs ; they showed on many occasions an offensive pride; and not infrequently they wounded Chilean sensibilities by the exhibition of a consciousness of superiority that was but slightly justified. We Chileans recognize that the modernizing of our army was a useful, necessary and patriotic task. We do not yet understand clearly how much of it was due to the foreign instructors and how much to the more rapid, clear and assimilating intelligence of the Chilean officers who have improved the reform by means of a well reasoned adaptation. We find much in Gennan pedagogy that is worthy of study, although we have not been able to adopt its methods en bloc, because they are opposed to the character and orientation o.f our race. We have distrusted, however, because back of all this military and peda- gogical labor, back of the banks, the lines of navigation, the industries and the contracts with the state, we have discerned an absorbing, dominating policy, which desired to subject the country to its exclusive influence, which sought to Prussianize it, forgetful of its character, its tradition, the genius of its race and its well established prerogatives of nationality. IV COMMERCE WITH THE BELLIGERENTS During many years the commerce of Chile was principally in the hands of the British. They established the first lines of navigation, the railways, the banking systems, the great importing and exporting houses. The center of our finances has been and continues to be London, in which market Chile has always found an easy credit, which was the merited recom- pense of the scrupulous seriousness with which our government has fulfilled its obligations. Only during these later years has there been any interest in turning 8 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR to Berlin, after the insistent solicitations of the agents of the imperial govern- ment, but the result has been limited to small and restricted operations. Next in order after the British came the French commerce, which occupied for many years the second place in our commercial statistics. When sail navi- gation still had a certain importance, the French ships, if they did not pre- dominate along" the American coast of the Pacific, were at least very plen- tiful, and some of the great ship-owners of Bordeaux accumulated there their large fortunes. In the last twenty-five or thirty years two new factors have appeared in the commerce of Chile : these are Germany and the United States, profoundly dif- ferent in their methods, but alike in the vigorous thrust with which they launch their efforts for the conquest of markets. The Germans have organized their commerce as a part of their general policy of domination, in harmony with their intellectual influence, their diplo- macy and the direct action of their government. The Americans have displayed marvelous individual energy in which the lack of tradition gave them stupen- dous liberty and originality. In the latest statistics that I have at hand, those of 1912, the imports of Chile stand in the following order: Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France, Peru, the Argentine Republic, India, Belgium, Australia, Italy, Spain, and then some forty different countries that show insignificant figures. Great Britain, without including her colonies, sent to Chile thirty-one per cent, of what our country imported from abroad; Germany, twenty-seven; the United States, thirteen; and France, five. German progress has been made for a long time at the expense of British commerce, as well as of French, which had existed in much greater proportions. In the last ten or twelve years the appearance of the United States, without hindering the German advance, has caused French commerce to subside to the fourth place and has diminished that of the British. The comparison of imports for the years 1911 and 1912 is curious, and it probably offers instructive features as^ to the general trend. The values are indicated in Chilean pesos which at par are rated at eighteen pence : 1911 1912 Great Britain 111,767,889 105,751,459 Germany 89,598,552 90,751,060 United States 43,221,833 46,044,771 France : 18,990,996 19,893,317 The exports reached similar figures. The four great purchasers buy the products of Chile more or less in the same proportion as that in which they sell to her their own. CHILE AND THE WAR 9 Great Britain takes forty per cent, of the total exports of Chile; Germany, twenty; the United States, seventeen; and France, five. The following are the comparative statistics of exports for the years 1911 and 1912, in which the con- siderable advance of the United States is worthy of mention : 1911 1912 Great Britain 145,913,120 150,996,163 Germany 71,780,194 76,878,617 United States 53,566,939 67,163,193 France 16,068,983 21,009,780 It is curious that French commerce has undergone in recent years a slight increase, although there are no French lines of navigation to Chile, nor French banks in the country, nor is there much effort on the part of the French govern- ment to develop this market. I omitted the very low figures of the commerce of Japan and Italy, which have no importance as a means of demonstrating the commercial relations of Chile with the belligerents prior to the war. V OPINION PRECEDING THE WAR Before the war there was among the intellectual and governing elements of Chilean society a great and profound affection for France, for her culture, her history, her civilization, contact with which had helped us to achieve the progress of the republic. As I have said, generation after generation had been formed under the almost exclusive influences of French culture. These sympathies had penetrated even to the depths of the popular masses, with which the French residents lived traditionally in harmony and mutual understanding. Neither the political relations of the governments, which were courteous but cold, nor the commercial, which were relatively limited, corresponded to this regard based upon an intellectual and moral sympathy. In the later years, it is necessary to say it, the political life of France, which we in Chile probably saw disfigured by the exaggerations of the French press itself, had awakened in some people, sincere admirers of France, a pessimistic impression regarding that republic. The politico-religious agitation, which ac- companied and followed the approval of the laws that separated the church and the state, produced not only among the conservatives, but even among many Chilean lifierals, a painful effect. Great Britain enjoyed in our country the enthusiastic admiration that her 10 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR political institutions merited, and the ample democratic evolution which was observed developing in that country was followed with lively interest. The Englishmen resident among us were highly esteemed, and they were looked upon as fine factors of progress, although the sympathy which they enjoyed did not reach the frank popularity and intimate fusion of the French. Both nationalities presented themselves to us as cooperators in our progress, as contributors to our riches and well-being, without either of them ever letting us behold any of those ambitions which arouse suspicions in a weak country; for their policy, as much that of the British as of the French, far from being invasive and absorbing, was rather neglectful of the interests they could have developed in Chile. We have already explained with what reluctant sentiments the Chileans wel- comed the German penetration, of the plan of which as a whole, it may be said in passing, account was not yet taken in the country. On the one hand, there were admiration for their methods and the irresistible vigor with which they applied them, gratitude for the work effected in the army and seduction by that force which levels obstacles; on the other, there was a vague disquietude, a kind of popular instinct, that caused us to resist Germanization and to desire that in Chile there should be less German activity. If the Germans had not learned to know us, neither had we succeeded in understanding them. The profound difference of the races, the oppositeness of their essential ideals, the distance between a republic very liberal in its institutions, and a militarist and authoritarian empire, the difficulty of the language, all con- tributed, in spite of the excessive labor of her agents, to the German nation being for us an enigma that only the war has permitted us completely to decipher. In order to set forth in all its reality this resume of the feelings with which the belligerents were regarded in Chile, before the war, it is proper to mention that in our country there has been developed during recent times a pessimistic impression as to the friendship we might expect from the European nations in general. They were all accused, not even excepting our mother Spain, of judging ill of us, of not giving us the place of which we believed ourselves worthy, of confounding Chile, a nation of order and one whose history may be examined without finding in it anything to put to the blush, with other republics that have been wont to furnish material for comic opera and light song. Literature, art, the press, the impressions gathered by the many Chileans who have returned from Europe, confirmed this feeling, fruit in part of an understandable national vanity, but justified to an extent by the defective in- formation which in general has existed regarding Spanish America. In recent years the work of the "Groupement des Universites et Grandes licoles de France," the Comite France-Amerique and some Spanish organiza- tions have tended to produce a wholesome and mutually advantageous reaction. CHILE AND THE WAR 11 VI AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR At the time of the publication of the first telegrams that announced the declaration of war and the invasion of Luxembourg and Belgium by the German army, there spread over Chile a great wave of perturbation, and it may be said that the Chileans were rare who had the right to proclaim themselves neutral in the depths of their consciences. Each one took the side toward which his sympathies, the tendencies of his spirit and the doctrines upon which he had based his culture, inclined him. Material considerations or the interests of commerce and industry in no wise entered into this perturbation. Chileans comprehended from the first moment that they were in the presence of the frightful clash of two forms of civilization^ of two ways of understanding progress, of two fundamental doctrines that affect all humanity. At the beginning, German propaganda was very active, and it adopted a violent tone that soon must do it much harm. There appeared special news- papers designed to prove the justice with which the Germanic empire launched upon Europe the machine of its military organization. The admiration that many people in Chile felt for the Germany army, which they had known only in times of peace, and upon which the Chilean army had been modeled, was ex- ploited as extensively as possible. Some went so far as to try to make the Chilean army, whose popularity in the country is well merited, appear as the center of German propaganda, and with this' object the German agents brought out a newspaper, the editing of which was entrusted to two Spaniards, and which bore the deceptive title of La Gaceta Militar, designed to create the belief outside of Chile that it was an organ of the army. It became necessary to make known outside of Chile the true character of this publication, which in its day created much talk. In the republic these ex- planations were unnecessary, since to no one would it occur to believe that there could be officers in our army involved in such an undertaking, which would have been contrary to their elementary duties and to the primary interests of their land. The Chilean press adopted a reserved and serene attitude, as would be proper in a neutral country and one in which lived citizens of all the belligerent countries. Our dailies have even carried too far their respect for the feelings of the groups of foreigners who reside in Chile. This and a desire to do jus- tice, to form a proper opinion of their own, to give room for fair play, as the English call it, caused the Chilean dailies — I refer to the press that infiuences opinion — to appear colorless at the beginning of the war. In some of !hem were accepted, on the part of one or the other side, col- laborations which started controversies or replies to the opinions of the cor- respondents of these dailies. 12 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR If it is true that they did not make many editorial comments, the Chilean . daihes, on the other hand, received abundant European news, all that the cen- sorship permitted, by extending as far as possible their ordinary services of tele- graphic information, some of which are excellent. When too the postal communications, disturbed during the first days of the war, became regular, there began to be published the documents relating to the war, the official notes regarding its origin, information about the German campaign in Belgium and the north of France, and the official details as to the treatment accorded to the civil populations. At the same time numerous Chileans, who had been in Paris or London when hostilities broke out, re- turned to Chile, and there appeared letters from Chilean correspondents who followed here the course of events. The violation of the neutrality of Luxembourg and Belgium, the compari- son of the documents of the German chancellery with those published by the Allies, the war methods adopted by the German army in Flanders and France, produced in Chile unanimous indignation. Not a Chilean voice was lifted, in so far as I know, to justify these deeds. The defense attempted by the German propaganda found no echo. By the end of 1914 Chilean opinion had oriented itself, and it was now felt that the majority of the country recognized that Germany was responsible for the war, and that her way of conducting it was a negation of the essential principles of civilization. Nevertheless, the complete consciousness of the human significance of the struggle was not yet formed. The German propaganda was very powerful and that of the Allies weak. However, the Germans by their own acts were about to take on themselves the task of making it felt in Chile that their triumph would be a danger for all the peoples of the globe who aspired to live free and be respected. VII THE CAMPAIGN OF THE GERMAN CRUISERS The war had thrown Chile into a profound economic crisis. For some years prior, the economic organism of the country was much debilitated and had lacked the power of resistance. The European conflict paralyzed all our commerce. The exportation of nitrate of soda, which brings to the state the larger part of its revenues, was suddenly interrupted. Thousands of workmen who had been employed in the extraction, elaboration and shipment of nitrate were out of work. The farmers of the central and southern regions were without markets for their products. The merchants found their European credits withdrawn and the transmission of merchandise suspended. The value of Chilean money in exchange fell to the borders of disaster. The cost of living increased in enor- mous proportions. This crisis would not have been so grave, and would have been of short CHILE AND TPIE WAR 13 duratioia, if there had not entered the circumstance that the larger part of the German war vessels which had not taken refuge in the canal of Kiel was gathered in the southern Pacific, where they began to disturb the traffic of the British merchant marine, which in the main carried the commerce of Chile. These cruisers, effectively aided by the Germans resident in Chile, dis- covered a way of receiving coal and provisions, violating a,t each step the neutrality of Chile, making light of the vigilance of the little Chilean squadron, and interrupting completely all maritime activity in our seas. It was not a very difficult undertaking, as the coast of Chile has a length of four thousand kilometers, sparsely populated and broken up toward the south into a labyrinth of passages, islands and fjords entirely deserted, which afford excellent refuge for vessels embarked upon a campaign of this kind. The Allies had at that time very deficient forces in the Pacific, and even the first that the English sent were totally inadequate, and they suffered a grave reverse. Ihis campaign of the German cruisers brought Chile a loss of many millions of pesos, great popular misery, the disorganization of her principal industries, and, what is worse, the humiliation of powerlessness to make her neutrality re- spected against an enterprise that respected nothing. The European cabinets did not understand at the beginning what was taking place on these coasts, which can be explained perfectly by the urgency and extraordinary character of the circumstances. The press of the Allies was un- just toward the government and the people of Chile. By good fortune the British chancellery soon obtained complete information, and it recognized the good faith with which our authorities struggled, in the midst of enormous difficulties, against the German outrages. It would have been a miracle if the government of Chile had been able to prevent absolutely such violations of her neutrality, with her small and inadequate navy, v/ith so extended a coast, unpeopled and broken, against the desperate character of the campaign of the Germanic cruisers. The solution was found by the British squadron that destroyed the cruisers in the combats off the Falkland islands and Juan Fernandez. From that day Chile began to regain her commercial and industrial activity, and afterward she succeeded in reestablishing normal conditions as far as this was possible during the war. VIII THE EVOLUTION Having felt to the quick the effects of the attitude of Germany toward the weak peoples, and having seen on our own coast how she trampled upon law and violated neutrality, constituted for Chileans an object lesson that was very efficacious and well utilized. Even t1i:' admirers of Germany— those who had placed in doubt or had 14 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR attributed to exaggerations, the public documents and the transmitted versions regarding affairs in Europe, and those who went mosr into ecstasies over the German organization they had studied in the time of peace — comprehended the danger that a power with such methods and such a mentahty constituted for Chile, as for all the peoples resolved to preserve their liberty and sovereignty by adjusting their acts to the public law of nations. The pressure of Chilean opinion unfavorable to Germany began to be felt with vigor. German propaganda lowered its tone, at the same time that that of the Allies achieved a better organization. Information of all kinds that tended to reveal the true character of the war was multiplied. Some of the dailies, like El Mer curio, without ceasing to be respectful to the last extreme of the sentiments of all the foreigners resident in Chile, which the traditional hospitality of the country required, did not disguise their sympathy with the cause of the Allies. El Diario Ilustrado, of conservative tendencies, but not the official organ of that party, assumed a reserved attitude, that seemed to be rather an effort not to commit itself before the public, in which it divined opposing opinions, than a lack of conviction of its own. The only important daily which at the beginning might have been charged with being Germanophile, La Union, the organ of the conservative and clerical party, perceptibly modified its tone, and gave utterance to expressions of pity for Belgium and of protest against certain German acts. A curious coincidence within the Chilean ministerial movements made it necessary that statesmen bound to the conservative party by political attachments, such as the sefiores Salinas and Villagas, should be the ones who were compelled to take action against the violations of the neutrality of Chile committed by the Germans, and that it should be a young and distinguished member of the conservative party, the senor Lira, who was obliged to declare in a note to the German legation in Santiago, that he would hold no further parley upon any subject whatsoever until the German government replied to the various demands which the govern- ment of Chile had presented several months before. Finally, the campaigns of the submarines and Zeppelins, the destruction of innocent lives, the death of hundreds of civilians — old men, women and children — who were traveling in merchant vessels or sleeping in their homes in open cities at a great distance from the theater of war, completed the indignation of Chilean public opinion. The sinking of the Lusitania was unanimously con- demned by the Chilean press without exception, as were the repetitions of that act. At the end of a year and a half of war, the points upon which the majority of Chileans seem to have reached an agreement may be defined with more precision. The most of the people of Chile recognize that there are juridical reasons in the interest of civilization and humanity, in defense of the constituent principles of all democracies, and in order to save from destruction the Latin civilization CHILE AND THE WAR 15 to which we belong, for desiring the triumph of the AlHes and the suppression, of German militarism. A consensus has been reached regarding certain fundamental points that may be summed up in the following manner : 1. That Germany provoked this war when it suited her, after having pre- pared her people during a labor of forty years, by means of an education and an organization whose only object was to attack Europe for the purpose of conquest. 2. That a mentality like hers, capable of subjecting an entire nation, with a view to aggression and conquest, is opposed to modern ideas of liberty, humane fraternity and moral progress. 3. That the triumph of a nation which proclaims military necessity as a suffi- cient reason for violating treaties, in which might is set up as the only source of authority, in which their essential liberties are denied to nations, would be the greatest peril that could be encountered by modern democracies and all those principles upon which American independence was established. 4. That all the methods heralded by German writers, sanctioned in their military regulations and applied in the campaigns of 1914-1.5, are contrary to the notions of humanity which Christianity diffused through the world, and do violence to the engagements entered into by civilized peoples to remove from war the elements of useless and barbarous cruelty of the primitive ages. 5. That there exists at the heart of this struggle a conflict between the two philosophical and political tendencies that have disputed for the domination, of peoples and the inspiration of their movements: one based upon right and the other upon force; one upon liberty and the other upon subjection; one upon fraternity and the other upon hatred cultivated as a sacred and almost mystical principle. I think I am not mistaken in saying that upon these fundamental questions Chilean opinion is in agreement. It is so by an overwhelming majority, although there are not wanting some persons who think in a different manner. In all countries there exist admirers of force and its transitory successes, whatever their moral significance. There are scattering elements in the diverse classes of society to which invasion and the destruction of cities and lives seem to be a sign of superiority. The primitive philosophy of the caveman still has its partisans. There are not wanting in Chile persons who have, not lost their admiration for what is called German organization and the galvanizing power of its methods. Not all have set themselves the task of examining the results which this organi- zation produces when it is applied to the exclusive service of a brutal force and an ambition that .recognizes no moral barriers. Perhaps the most of those who in Chile are still friendly to the German cause are to be found among the clergy and the militant Catholics, although indeed they are not the more cultured and better informed. 16 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR At the beginning of the war many members of the Chilean clergy suffered the same perturbation of judgment as that in which the Spanish clergy still remains : they believed that in this war the Germanic empire was an instrument of Providence to chastize France for having expelled the religious orders. This interpretation, somewhat loose and of doubtful orthodoxy, involved a cruel injustice to Catholic Belgium and the millions of fervent French and English Catholics. However, this was not wholly the fault of those who adopted, in a spirit of thoughtlessness, the "old German God," whom the Emperor William invoked so often in his first pronouncements. The Vatican, we all know, did not in those days have a clear and definite policy. Stories were current, exploited by the German propaganda, that kept the Catholic peoples among the Allies in painful disquietude!. Men of great religious faith asked them- selves if they were obliged to choose between their patriotic sentiment and submission to a Roman policy which, in the midst of the most perfect orthodoxy, they might consider erroneous. The clergy of Chile understood the danger, even before the Vatican had given indications that it would not link the interests of Catholicism with the empire, an ally of Mohammedanism, which destroyed churches and shot priests in Flanders, Mobile her agents in Asia and Africa preached a holy war upon Christianity . On the other hand, neither before nor afterward did the clergy or the Catholics who sympathized with the German cause give public expression to their sentiments. Their official organ, as I have said already, showed that it did not wish to be considered Germanophile. What is more important, not a few respectable priests and distinguished men of intellectual worth, professors and professionals, refused to conceal their convictions, which were entirely favorable to the Allies. One of the most eminent professors of the Catholic University of Santiago, don Juan Enrique Concha, who with so much brilliancy occupied the chair of social economy, has in recent publications exhibited his sympathy with the Allies and his conviction that they uphold a just cause, and he has shown his especial admiration for France, whose economic schools have been the object of his study for several years. IX FUTURE PROBLEMS From the juridical and moral point of view, the Chileans are profoundly interested in the form in which the European forces that are to-day in conflict will be rearranged, and the principles of law that will be applied to the new Europe. A country, young, weak, democratically constituted, as ours is, requires for its future free development that the principle of nationality, as it has been pro- claimed by the Allies, be put into practice in the solution of the problems to which war gives rise. CHILE AND THE WAR 17 We could wish that there should result from this war solid guaranties that, in the future, public international law shall not be violated, that treaties shall again constitute a secure basis of relations between peoples, and that it shall not be necessary to consider force as the only pledge of security for a nation that provokes no one. We need, in fine, that Europe, victorious over militarism, shall guarantee to humanity that the case of Belgium shall not be repeated. In their economic aspects, the results of the war disquiet us. From Europe we have not only received culture and the principles of law, but commerce, capital and immigration. The sooner the economic energies of Great Britain, France and the other European countries with which we need to make an exchange of products, be recovered, the better for us. Our markets need to be open to all, and to all we need to oflfer the products of our soil. We hope that the reaction which will follow the war will awaken in Europe a particular interest in the nitrate of soda of Chile, which agriculture will need to intensify its production, in order to regain the wealth lost. Germany has declared a sort of war upon our product, and has announced officially that she no longer needs it, as she obtains the same results with her chemical fertilizers and nitrogen extracted from the air. We desire to believe that the rest of the countries will continue to give the preference to the natural Chilean product. What will be the condition of the great money markets of London and Paris after the war? Here is a problem that interests us. We need capital, and up to the present we. have secured it in those countries upon satisfactory terms. The financial recovery of both these great powers, after the gigantic efforts they are making for their defense, is an immediate Chilean interest. It may be supposed that the war, in the first years after the signing of peace, will throw great masses of Europeans upon America. We ought to be very cau- tious in the selection of these elements, many of which can be for us a valuable addition, in order that others may not come to us who will be stumbling-blocks in the way of our development. Chilean laws grant in this respect an absolute liberty. There exists in our country no limitation or restriction upon immigration. The Avar has revealed that an injection of considerable masses of foreigners from nations with imperialistic ambitions constitutes a serious menace for the people that receives them into its bosom with excessive generosity. It will be necessary to establish conditions for the entrance of foreigners into Chile in a manner which, without departing from the liberal policy Ave have followed, may shield us from other evils. Until now the disturbances which the Avar introduced into European commerce and industries have benefited the United States, Avhich continues to develop with greater success than ever before its actiA^ty in the American markets. It is possible that these same circumstances may facilitate the introduction of Ameri- can capital into our country, now that New York is able to gather abundant reserves of gold. 18 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR Here arises a problem which seldom has even been alluded to in Europe, and which it would be well to foresee and to study. In recent years the Pacific ocean has undergone a transformation that is one of the most interesting phenomena of our epoch. Previously its waters bathed the coasts of nations in formation and of aged countries in decadence. The western coast of the United States had no importance. All Spanish America was an undecipherable chaos. Australia and New Zealand were scarcely born, and Japan was beginning its marvelous resurrection. To-day all these countries are in their full development: they possess commerce and industries; they are centers of wealth or they will be shortly; and the Panama canal puts them into direct and easy contact with the rest of the civilized world. It is not a simple fantasy, the possibility foreseen by different writers, of a struggle for the domination of the Pacific, in which Japan and the United States will be the center of aggroupments of powers. It interests Chileans to know how the solutions that will grow out of the present war will affect the terms of this problem, which concerns us intimately. Finally, our interest is bound up in the conclusion of the war. We desire peace, just as all the civilized nations desire it; but we want a definitive peace that will settle the problems, and not a provisional one that will leave them in suspense. We know that if the future peace be not founded upon the destruction of Prussian militarism, compelling it to renounce ambitions that led it to provoke the war, it will be of short duration. During a truce of this nature, with Europe and the world menaced by a renewal of the conflict, we could not return to the perfect normality of our development. We prefer the continuation of the war, with all the injury it causes us, provided a definite solution in fact and in law shall be achieved. X THE LATIN IDEAL The war has revealed a world of ideas of which we had a presentment, and which draws us toward the Latin peoples of Europe with whom we have a community of origin, of moral interests and tendencies in culture. Our civilization had a purely Latin origin. It proceeded in the first place from Spain, and it has been essentially modified by the French influence that we received all through the nineteenth century. We can not conceive of an evolution which will carry us along paths op- posed to these. A people of a definite race, with a history that has permitted it to constitute itself into a well determined nationality, can not. accept a change in civilization, imposed by an external influence, without denying its very being and renouncing its character and essential constitution. We are disposed to receive the influences of other countries, and to take from each of them that which may seem to accord best with our progress. It CHILE AND THE WAR 19 pleases us greatly to feel that in Chile there occur those fusions of ideas in which diverse cultures act and react upon each other. There is, however, an essential basis determined by our origin and our first intellectual formation that none may dare to touch. The imperative, subjugating, absorbing form of all the Germanic penetration, as we began to feel it in our country and as the present war has revealed it with greater clearness, is incom- patible with the existence of a free nation, and it may be applied only to peoples that commit suicide. We should desire that those who are to-day the Allies may continue to maintain their accord after the war, for the good of humanity, and that they may constitute a nucleus that will be a center for the solution of many human problems that interest us. They would thus be the champions of the new ideal. Much is said regarding the renewal of the Latin ideal. The expression is still vague, and it will be necessary precisely to define it in words and in deeds. If this Latin ideal consists in respecting the principle of nationality in an effective form ; in the diffusion of the culture which was born in Rome, and which has succeeded in producing the liberties that the contemporary peoples enjoy and long for to-day; in the predominance of law over force; in an effort to make human existence better and more beautiful ; in international cooperation for elevating the moral and material conditions of the life of all peoples, then the Latin ideal is our ideal, the ideal of our democracy. If the American countries are to share this ideal, the European powers that incarnate it must, according to my judgment, use it as the foundation of their future relations with the nationalities of the new continent ; they must grant to these nations their position in the assembly of cultured peoples; and they must understand that these nations are the humanity of the future, now on the march, and that each of them possesses a personality of its own. From Canada to the strait of Magellan, from Australia and New Zealand to South Africa, there is a world that was generated by Europe, and which will soon attain its majority. Its origins are Spanish, British and French. The Germanic race has shown greater capacity for the destruction of nationalities than for their creation. The policy of the future must be based upon the conviction that the progress of humanity can only be accomplished by an intimate, loyal and disinterested accord between the nations of Europe and those of this New World. Without an understanding, neither the political, the intellectual nor the economic life of Europe will be able to achieve its perfection after the war, nor will those nations which are now awakened to activity in every form be able to complete their evolution. The forces th^t are still wanting in our young American peoples, we must seek in Europe. The balm that will cure the wounds of the old continent, to-day gaping and bleeding, can only be found here beyond the seas. THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR By Nicolas F. Lopez I Although the causes that led to the present war between Germany and the United States are well known, they deserve at least a brief rehearsal in order to refresh the mind regarding certain acts committed by the belligerents of the European war, — acts by which they made a mockery of all the principles that have been consecrated by international law during the last century, called the enlightened. We deem ourselves as much affected by the miseries of the Central empires as we are grieved by the misfortunes of the countries of the Entente. In spite of their exalted culture, we consider them, one and all, the victims of the glamor of greatness and dominion, and we believe the results of the war will justify Norman Angell's prophecies regarding the futility of every argument that involves the sacrifice of myriads of victims for the acquisition of a political domination that must in the end prove illusory, fantastic and contrary to the laws that govern the development of nations. On February 4, 1915, the German admiralty announced that every enemy ship that should be found within a war zone designated by itself would be destroyed, and that the neutral vessels that might be discovered in the same zone would be exposed to the danger of mistake and accident, owing to the use of neutral flags by the enemy, without regard for the lives of the passengers and crews of such ships. The consequences of these premises were seen in the immediate sinking of the steamships Falaba, Gushing, Arabic, Sussex and Lusitania, the last named with 1,198 victims, of whom 124 were North Americans. During the processes and protests formulated by the chancellery of the United States, Mr. Bryan uttered this sentence in denunciation of Germany: "They constitute open and grave violations of universally accepted international obligations." The eft'ort of the belligerents to convert the free seas into mine fields and military zones, through which the traffic of neutrals would be impossible, reached the stage of an accomplished fact. This constituted one of the greatest abuses of public law. There was, however, an essential difference between the acts of Eng- land and those of Germany. The aggressions of England in the detention, search and capture of neutral vessels, and the submission of their merchandise to prize THE ATTITQDE OF ECUADOR 21 courts, if exaggerated and abusive, are palliated by the failure to approve the Declaration of London, and by the fact that they prejudiced the interests but not the lives of neutrals, considered in all time as removed even from the very idea of attack. On the other hand, the conduct of the German submarines in sinking vessels under friendly flags, without previous warning sometimes, and at other times, with the sarcasm implied by the abandonment of boats hundreds of miles from the shore, has aroused the universal conscience, since, because of the defectiveness of the submarine as an instrument of capture, and its incapacity to put in safety the lives of crews and passengers, it ought to have been excluded from the concern of neutrals, and all its offensive power ought to have been concentrated upon the vessels of the enemy. This being the case, the action of the submarines was not only an assault upon enemy merchandise carried in neutral vessels, but it was also destructive of neutral lives and property protected by neutral flags. This proceeding amounts to a return to the war methods of the time of the corsairs, with the aggravating circumstance that the boardings, onslaughts and hazards of the attacks by the latter gave an opportunity for defence, while the submarine, in the civilized days through which we are passing, proceeds with absolute safety and with an uncon- cern truly Teutonic. A murky German philosophy attempts to justify these iniquities by con- tending that the Germans are obeying the law of Prussian expediency, by them exalted as the reason for the existence of the world. Thus their national egotism i^ to become the arbiter of human destinies. Since this morality has been intensified by the declaration that the submarines \vould sink without warning any vessel of whatsoever flag, whether it carried contraband merchandise or not, that might venture to navigate within the radius indicated ad libitum by that arbiter, it has become binding upon all, as a duty of human solidarity, to support the attitude of the United States in severing diplo- matic relations with the empire that has revived the war methods of four centuries ago. This support does not signify, as it can not signify, our participation in a war which plans national extinction and annihilation, inasmuch as the present military organization has enlisted in arms countries whose total destruction may be considered but little short of impossible. The breaking ofif of relations is but the expression of a protest, a loftv protest, against proceedings that put justice to shame and are an attack upon reason. It is the mildest and most enlightened form of reprobating the measures of refined cruelty practiced without discrimination in view either of friendship or of neutrality. To abstain f rohi making this protest, which is synonymous with dignity, under pretext of preserving a neutrality that has already been expressly and olticially 22 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON TIIE WAR disregarded by the belligerent, is carrying things to the extreme of disregarding the very instincts of self-preservation. The juridical concept of neutrality differs from the popular idea of what that concept is. Juridical neutrality "is the condition of those states which, in time of war, do not take part in the struggle, and continue their peaceful relations with the belligerents." According to the popular idea, this concept implies an attitude of Mussulman indifference, isolation and total aloofness, which does not comport with the principles of international law. It is understood that this duty of volun- tary neutrality is the correlative of the law of the inviolability of neutral territory,. and of the law of the free use of the sea as the commercial highway of the na- tions, subject only to the right of search and the submission of contraband to prize courts. Since the exercise of these two fundamental rights has been openly made light of by Germany, what other measure than the suspension of diplomatic rela- tions can be adopted on the part of the twenty-one American republics with re- gard to the empire, particularly in view of the fact that Germany has not denied lo the English press the insinuation which she made to the countries of the Entente with respect to a possible return of all the invaded territory of Belgium, Russia and the Balkans, provided she be given a free hand in Latin America. The rela- tive smallness of some of these republics in no way diminishes the principle of their sovereignty and independence, in virtue of which every nation invested with rights by international law may demand that its rights be respected and protected by all the other nations. This involves that all shall respect the rights of each, according to the fifth declaration of "The Rights and Duties of Nations," adopted by the American Institute of International Law. The essential difference in point of law between the countries of America and the powers of Europe inheres in the political system which operates in the American countries. Here democracy, incipient and even deficient, if you will,, in some of the countries, has created a basis of equality in internal judicial rela- tions that may well be given a comprehensive application to juridical relations of an international order. In absolute and semi-constitutional monarchies, on the contrary, the great interests of the privileged classes compel them to look first with disdain, and then with a view to prevention, in case of difficulty, upon the governments and peo- ples that are the agents of their own destinies, and are, in short, the most obvious and eloquent negation of the traditional and divine rights which sustain these monarchies. Without the Colossus of the North,^ more than one Holy Alliance for the collection of debts from the governments of the scandalous republics of America. i A name often applied to the United States in the southern countries, particularly in Central America and in the northern countries of South America.— Translator's note. THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR 23 would have been formed in Europe between the reigning families in which the thirst for dominion, honors and wealth drowns the cries of blood, and drives their peoples to the extermination of everything they consider opposed to the continuance of their privileges and the glorification of their self-interest. As the situation of this continent is peculiar, very peculiar, considered from its geographical, historical, political and social points of view, so also must its laws of international application be peculiar. If Pan Americanism, with the lineaments prefigured from the time of Monroe and Lincoln to the time of Bryan and Wilson, has not yet been established, it is due to the force of inertia which our peoples employ against the very measures that assure their liberty and pro- claim their rights. In a similar manner the sovereignty and independence of which we boast to-day, we resisted yesterday, by cooperating with the Spanish authorities in the reaction that sought in vain to thwart the aspirations and sacrifices of our national liberators. The proposition presented by the internationalist Alejandro Alvarez, before the First Pan American Scientific Congress, raised the question of the existence of a special American international law. After a long and illuminating discussion he obtained the declaration : The Congress recognizes that in the New World there exist problems sui generis, of a character completely American; and that the states of this hemisphere have req-ulated, by means of treaties of more or less general appli- cation, questions which interest them alone, and which although of universal interest, have not yet been incorporated in a universal convention. Since the nations of America have been invited by the illustrious President of the United States to make a joint and fitting protest against the conduct ot Germany in refusing to recognize the rights of neutrals, in an assault upon their lives, in the paralyzation of their commerce, and in the conversion of the expedi- encies of the empire, judged by the standards of that government, into the supreme law of civilized peoples, our attitude ought to be one of frank and decided sup- port of the United States, which has presented itself as the paladin of the liber- ties of the world against the iniquities of the great war. It should be under- stood that, owing to the limitation of our forces, this united support must be given solely for the purpose of repudiating the acts cited, which, if they be left to stand without protest, will become precedents and practices in the European law of force in its pretended contentions against the validity of American law. II Those who refer to the duties of neutrality and attribute to them a positive, definite and effective character, fall into a grave error. In international juris- prudence there hardly exists a concept of more Conventional, negative and con- 24 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR tradictory application than that of neutrality, since its pretended rights are sub- ject to the restrictions imposed by the belligerents, while the amplitude of its obligations is determined by what they consider their expediencies. For this reason, Westlake has said that the obligation of neutrality does not exist, but that it is incumbent upon every member of the international society to work for a peace based upon justice; and that such a result will not be obtained if an attitude of indifference be adopted in the presence of abuses and crimes, since the perpetrators of them discover in this indifference the stimulus and even the applause that indefinitely prolong the hitherto unheard of proceedings. The complications of the passive attitude increase, if we consider that, in the present developments of the great war, with the passing of each day, and in proportion to the greatness of the nations that unite in the defence of the funda- mental principles of international law, it has become almost impossible to pre- serve the neutrality demanded by the opposing interests. The difficulty arises in view of the enormous extension of the prohibitive lists in respect of munitions of war, and of the contradictions and inconsistencies which spring from the same concept of neutrality. For if trade in arms and munitions, for example, be not considered a violation of neutrality, on the other hand, the sale of ships and ves- sels of whatever character is ; and while war loans are in current use and tolerated in neutral places, subscriptions and public collections are prohibited. Basing his argument on these abnormalities, Lorimer has said: "Only neces- sity can justify either war or neutrality, and they are not the source from which we derive normal rights and duties." At first sight nothing appears more logical and opportune than the gathering of a congress of neutrals in which to define the extent of these rights and duties, restricted or augmented, according to the lens through which the belligerent views them. However, after a little reflection upon the idea and its practical results, the futility of the former and the Utopian and nugatory character of the latter are proven. This meeting would have to be called a Congress of Spanish-American Neu- trals, in case it should it should be constituted, since the United States forms an integral part of the great struggle. Of the countries that constitute the Latin- American family, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, for reasons known to all, have broken off relations with Germany, and some of them have declared war upon her. Let it not be forgotten that the atti- tude of these sister countries is taken against Germany only, without applying it to the other Central empires and allies of Germany, as is evident from the respec- tive notes of their chancelleries. There would be left then to form the congress of neutrals the remaining fifteen countries of Spanish speech, three of which are passing through conditions of open revolution, and in many of the others sub- versive tendencies may be noted. What importance would universal opinion, per- THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR 25 turbed now by the magnitude of the war, attach to the decisions and resolutions of this congress, composed of nations whose governments are barely able to set in order their own houses? In case of disobedience or a sanguinary mockery of the conclusions reached by the neutral nations, what entity or political power would guarantee the carry- ing out of that which might be agreed upon, or what other means than that of war could be utilized for extrication from the difficulty through the canons of inter- national law? If the decisions or resolutions which must by their very nature be binding upon the belligerents of the present war, who will put the bells, not any longer upon the cats, but upon the panthers and tigers that are now rending each other in the frightful slaughter? The congress of neutrals, desiring to prevent the horrors of the struggle, would have hastened the inclusion in it of the countries which have remained out of the conflict. It seems incredible that there should exist those who would even plan the formation of a congress for studies, discussions, declarations and resolutions that would be based upon the doctrines, speculations, theories and practices of international law, in the precise moments in which the table has been swept bare of everything of that character: from the inalienable principle of maritime freedom and territorial sovereignty, to the no less sacred one of faith in public treaties, si^bscribed to by the very powers which, through declaration in solemn act and in the presence of the majesty of their own parliaments, have made a jest of them. In spite of the passage of time, of their own political autonomy and the degree of culture attained by the Latin countries of America, they were admitted to the concert of civilized nations, which was celebrated at the Congress of the Hague, only by means of the good ofifices and the demands of the United States, without whose concurrence America weighs little enough in the scales of human destiny. Dominated by the prejudices which our routine of thought has accumu- lated agcCinst the United States of North America, we repeat daily the elegy of Panama, the melodrama of Cuba and Puerto Rico, the tragedy of Mexico (without making distinctions between the people and their governments). We re- frain, however, from recalling the long and shameful process of negotiation?, warnings, blood and tears that preceded each of those dramatic climaxes which have not even had the power to make us profit by the experiences of others ; and, although the progress achieved and the advantages acquired by the peoples that have drawn inspiration from the spirit of American democracy, are known to us in detail, we forget to mention them, and we continue the tiresome recital of abuses and vassalage, while the pitied victims feel themselves to be happy, and 26 SOUTH AMERICAN OPINIONS ON THE WAR vote for a continuation of the regimen of bloody purification, which is necessary perhaps for the intensification of their culture. The exaggerations of what is called patriotism tend to distort public judg- ment, and they precipitate the abuses which are invoked in the name of necessity exalted as the supreme law of nations. Vital interests, and not idealistic rhap- sodies, are the forces that determine international relations, although they are indeed all the more sincere and close in proportion to the greater number of points of political, economic and social affinity that exist between them. If in the eighty-seven years of our independent life, and through the agitations of an internal order that Ecuador has endured in obedience to the laws of evolution, no friction worthy of consideration has ever been produced between the chan- celleries of Washington and Quito, why, in the supreme moments of the present, must we entertain ourselves with recriminations regarding acts that do not con- cern us, or much less, foment, with implacable tenacity, jealousies- and hatreds that might work us great damage? Since the participation of the United States in the war was occasioned by causes that honor the democracy of the north, and since it means the salvation of the principles that inform our own political existence, it is the part of puerile in- justice, since we do not desire to behold in it malevolence, to attribute to selfish interests, to the solicitations of unbounded greed and avarice, the entrance into the struggle of the Colossus of the North, which, after having fed the population of Belgium for two years and a half, and after having exhausted its efforts and patience in favor of peace, opens its inexhaustible chests to European credit, and enters the war to sustain the canons of justice, democracy and imperiled right. The nation that carries on two-thirds of the foreign commerce, and consumes at present three-quarters of the exports of each and all of the countries of Amer- ica being now in the struggle, will it be possible to make our strict neutrality conform to the demands of our life and the complications of the immense stage, or are we to aid passively in the extermination of all those moral values that have prevailed in the world, as if it were a question of occurrences that do not concern us, or that take place among stranger and antagonistic peoples remote from our continent ? Not thus has the wise Brazilian statesmanship comprehended the case, which, in spite of the great German interests vested in that vast territory, has foreseen the perturbations of to-morrow, and has severed its relations with the empire that would carry its methods of force and insult to whatever point to which one of its subjects might betake himself. Not thus has the question been understood by the diplomacy of Bolivia, which has now assured for that mediterranean nation an outlet to the Pacific, very shortly to be visited by the superdreadnaughts of the Star Spangled Banner. Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, falling in with the policy of the White House, have laid the founda- THE ATTITUDE OF ECUADOR 27 tions of a republico-democratic solidarity that ought to endure immovable among the members of the American family. Strict neutrality, in addition to the impossibility of maintaining it in prac- tice, would give proof of the mental poverty of the country that holds aloof, of a lack of sagacity to improve the occasion for insuring its destiny, and of the absence of the morality for lack of which it remains indifferent in the presence of the innumerable crimes perpetrated upon the persons of neutrals by the empire whose sovereignty alone sets bounds upon its cruelty. If Ecuador does not sever relations with Germany, it ought at least to decree a benevolent neutrality toward the United States, based upon the cordiality of their former relations, the similarity of their political constitutions, the growing importance and correlation of their commerce, and, finally, upon the high aims which have impelled the entrance of North America irito the great struggle in behalf of human liberty, and which as a result will create a new social organiza- tion, based upon the government of the people by the people. PUBLICATIONS OF THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT OCTOBER 1, 1917. The chief agency of propaganda adopted by the Trustees is by pubHcations bearing the imprint of the Endowment. The Hst of these publications is already large, and some of the earlier pamphlets and monographs are now out of print. In the following list these are included, the publications no longer available for distribution being thus indicated (f). Many of the publications are issued for gratuitous circulation, and are sent to all addresses carried upon the regular mailing lists of the Endowment, or upon request to all persons writing for them. This free distribution does not apply to the publications of the Division of Economics and History nor to certain of the publications of the Division of International Law, which are highly technical in character and appeal to limited groups of students and specialists. In each such case the title of the publication is preceded by (*), and the price is indicated. They can be obtained by remit- tance to the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, or to the American Branch of the Oxford Press, 35 West 32d Street, New York, N. Y. The Endowment has established depository libraries for all its pub- lications in the larger cities of the United States, where they may be consulted. A list of these depository libraries is included in the Year Book for 1917, p. 187. Additional publications will be announced from time to time. Publications of the Secretary's Office fYear Book for 1911; Year Book for 1912; Year Book for 1913-1914; Year Book for 1915; Year Book for 1916; Year Book for 1917. Publications of the Division of Intercourse and Education No. 1 Some Roads Towards Peace: A report on observations made in China and Japan in 1912. By Dr. Charles W. Eliot, vi — 88 p. 1914. fNo. 2 German International Progress in 1913. By Professor Dr. Wilhelm Pasz- KOWSKi. iii — 11 p. 1914. No. 3 Educational Exchange with Japan. By Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie. 8 p. 1914. fNo. 4 Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Con- duct OF THE Balkan Wars, ix — 418 p., illus., maps. 1914. fNo. 5 Intellectual and Cultural Relations Between the United States and the Other Republics of America. By Dr. Harry Erwin Bard, iv— 35 p. 1914. No. 6 Growth of Internationalism in Japan. By T. Miyaoka. iii — 15 p. 1915. fNo. 7 For Better Relations with our Latin American Neighbors: A Journey to South America. [English Edition.] By Robert Bacon, viii— 168 p. 1915. No. 8 The Same, in the Original Spanish, Portuguese and French, viii — 221 p. 1915. A second edition of Mr. Bacon's Report, containing Nos. 7 and 8 in one volume, has also been published. , No. 9 Former Senator Burton's Trip to South America. By Otto Schoenrich. iii — 40 p. 1915. No. 10 Problems About War for Classes in Arithmetic. By David Eugene Smith, Ph.D., LL.D. 23 p. 1915. No. 11 Hygiene and War; Suggestions for Makers of Textbooks and for Use in Schools. By George Ellis Jones, Ph.D. 1917. No. 12 Russia, The Revolution and the War. An Account of a Visit to Petrograd and Helsingsfors in March, 1917. By Dr. Christian L. Lange, Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Union. 26 p. 1917. No. 13 Greetings to the New Russia. Addresses at a Meeting Held at the Hudson Theater, New York, April 23, 1917, Under the Auspices of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. 14 p. 1917. No. 14 South American Opinions on the War: I. Chile and the War, by Carlos SiLVA Vildosola; II. The Attitude of Ecuador, by Nicolas F. Lopez. Trans- LA.TION FROM THE SPANISH BY PeTER H. GoLDSMITH. 28 p. 1917. Publications of the Division of Economics and History ♦Nationalism and War in the Near East. By a Diplomatist. Edited by Lord Court- ney of Penwith. Published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, xxvi —434 p. 1915. Price. $4.15. *The Industrial Development and Commercial Policies of the Three Scandinavian Countries. By Povl Drachmann. Edited by Harald Westergaard, LL.D. Published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford,, England. 130 p. 1915. Price, $1.50. *Losses of Life in Modern Wars. Austria-Hungary ; France. By Gaston Bodart, LL.D. — Military Selection and Race Deterioration. By Vernon Lyman Kellogg. Edited by Harald Westergaard, LL.D. Published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, x— 207— 6 p. 1916. Price, $2.00. ♦Economic Protectionism. By Josef Grunzel. Edited by Eugen von Philippovich. Pub- lislied bv the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, xiii — 357 — 6 p. 1916. Price $2.90. ♦Epidemics Resulting from Wars. By Dr. Friedrich Prinzing. Edited by Harald Wes- tergaard, LL.D. Published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, xii — 340—6 p. 1916. Price, $2.50. ♦The Colonial Tariff Policy of France. By Dr. Arthur Girault. Edite_d_ by Charles Gide. Published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, viii — 305 — 6 p. 1916. Price. $2.50. ♦The Five Republics of Central America, Their Political and Economic Development and Their Relations with the United States. By Dana G. Munro. Edited by David Kinley. Published by the American Branch of the Oxford University Press, New York, N. Y. 1917. Price to be announced. Publications of the Division of International Law ♦The Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899 and 1907, 2d. ed. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director, xxxiii— 303 p. 1915. Price, $2.00. ♦Las Convenciones y Declaraciones de la Haya de 1899 y 1907. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director, xxxv— 301 p. 1916. Price, $2.00. ♦The Freedom of the Seas. A dissertation by Hugo Grotius. Translated with a revision of the Latin text of 1633, by Ralph van Deman Magoffin, Ph.D. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director, xv— 83 p. (Parallel pp.) 1916. Price, $2.00. ♦Instructions to the American Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences and Theif Official Reports. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director, v— 138 p. 1916. Price, $1.50. ♦The Status of th? International Court of Justice, with an appendix of addresses and official documents, by James Brown Scott, Director, v— 93 p. 1916. Price, $1.50. ♦An International Court of Justice, by James Brown Scott, ix— 108 p. 1916. Price, $1.50, *Recomm£ndations on International Law and Official Commentary Thereon of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress held in Washington, Decembes 27, 1915-January 8, 1916. Edited by James Brown Scott vii— 53 p. 1916. Price, $1.00. *An Essay on a Congress of Nations for the Adjustment of International Disputes without Resort to Arms, by William Ladd. Reprinted from the original edi- tion of 1840, with an introduction by James Brown Scott, Director. 1 — 162 p. 1916. Price, $2.00. *The Hague Court Reports, comprising the awards, accompanied by syllabi, the agreements for arbitration, and other documents in each case submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and to commissions of inquiry under the provisions of the Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for the pacific settlement of international dis- putes. Edited by James Brown Scott, cxi — 664 p. 1916. Price, $3.50. ♦Resolutions of the Institute of International Law Dealing with the Law of Na- tions, with an historical introduction and explanatory notes. Collected and translated under the supervision of and edited by James Brown Scott, xli — 261 p. 1916. Price, $2.00. ♦Diplomatic Documents Relating to the European War. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director. 2 vols. 1916. Price, $7.50. ♦The Declaration of Independence ; the Articles of Confederation ; the Constitution OF the United States. Edited, with an Introductory Note, by James Brown Scott, Director. 124 p. 1917. Price, $1.00. ♦The Controversy over Neutral Rights between the United States and France 1797-1800. A Collection of American State Papers and Judicial Decisions. Edited by James Brown Scott, Director, vi — 510 p. 1917. Price to be announced. Pamphlet Series No. 1 Arbitrations and Diplomatic Settlements of the United States, vii — 21 p. No. 2 Limitation of Armament on the Great Lakes. The report of John W. Foster, Secretary of State, December 7, 1892. vii — 57 p. 1914. No. 3 Signatures, Ratifications, Adhesions and Reservations to the Conventions AND Declarations of the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences, vii —32 p. 1914. No. 4 The Hague Conventions of 1899 (I) and 1907 (I) for the Pacific Settlement OF International Disputes, iv — 48 p. 1915. No. 5 The Hague Conventions of 1899 (II) and 1907 (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, iv— 33 p. 1915. No. 6 The Hague Conventions of 1899 (III) and 1907 (X) for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention, iv — 19 p. 1915. No. 7 The Hague Declarations of 1899 (IV, 1) and 1907 (XIV) Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons, iv — 5 p. 1915. No. 8 The Hague Declaration (IV, 2) of 1899 concerning Asphyxiating Gases, iv —2 p. 1915. No. 9 The Hague Declaration (IV, 3) of 1899 concerning Expanding Bullets, iv — 2 p. 1915. No. 10 The Final Acts of the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences, together WITH THE Draft Convention on a Judicial Arbitration Court, iv — 40 p. 1915, No. 11 The Hague Convention (II) of 1907 respecting the Limitation of the Em- ployment OF Force for the Recovery of Contract Debts, iv — 7 p. 1915. No. 12 The Hague Convention (III) of 1907 relative to the Opening of Hostilities. iv— 4 p. 1915. No. 13 The Hague Convention (V) of 1907 respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land, iv — 8 p. 1915. No. 14 The Hague Convention (VI) of 1907 relating to the Status of Enemy Mer- chant Ships at the Outbreak of Hostilities, iv — 5 p. 1915. No. 15 The Hague Convention (VII) of 1907 relating to the Conversion of Mer- chant Ships into War-ships, iv— 5 p. 1915. No. 16 The Hague Convention (VIII) of 1907 relative to the Laying of AutoxMatic Submarine Contact Mines, iv — 6 p. 1915. No. 17 The Hague Convention (IX) of 1907 concerning Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War. iv — 6 p. 1915. No. 18 The Hague Convention (XI) of 1907 relative to Certain Restrictions with regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War. iv— 6 p. 1915. No. 19 The Hague Convention (XII) of 1907 relative to the Creation of an Inter- national Prize Court, iv — 21 p. 1915. No. 20 The Hague Convention (XIII) of 1907 concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War. iv— -11 p. 1915. No. 21 The Geneva Convention of 1906 for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, iv — 17 p. 1915. No. 22 Documents Respecting the Limitation of Armaments, v — Z2 p. 1915. No. 23 Official Communications and Speeches Relating to Peace Proposals, vi — 100 p. 1917. No. 24 Documents Relating to the Controversy over Neutral Rights between the United States and France, 1797-1800. vii— 91 p. 1917. No. 25 Opinions of the Attorneys General and Judgments of the Supreme Court and Court of Claims of the United States Relating to the Controversy Over Neutral Rights Between the United States and France, 1797-1800. V— 340 p. 1917. No. 26 Opinions of Attorneys General, Decisions of Federal Courts, and Diplomatic Correspondence Respecting the Treaties of 1785, 1799 and 1828, Between the United States and Prussia, vi — 158 p. 1917. No. 26^ Supplement to Pamphlet No. 26. No. 27 Official Documents Bearing on the Armed Neutrality of 1780 and 1800. x — 295 p. 1917. No. 28 Extracts from American and Foreign Works on International Law Con- cerning THE Armed Neutrality of 1780 and 1800. vi — 109 p. 1917. No. 29 Two Ideals of Government, v — 17 p. 1917. No. 30 The Effect of Democracy on International Law. Opening address by Elihu Root as President of the American Society of International Law at the Eleventh Annual Aleeting of the Society in Washington, April 26, 1917. ii — 10 p. 1917. CLASSICS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW This series will include the leading works on International Law, the republication of which has been undertaken principally on account of the difficulty of procuring the texts in convenient form for scientific study. The text of each author is reproduced photograph- ically, so as to lay the source before the reader without the mistakes which creep into a newly printed text. An Introduction is prefixed to each work, giving the necessary bio- graphical details concerning its author and stating the importance of the text and its place in International Law; tables of errata in the original are added when necessary, and notes to clear up doubts and ambiguities or to correct mistakes in the text are supplied. Each work is accompanied by an English version made expressly for the series by a competent translator. James Brown Scott, Director of the Division of International Law, is the General Editor of the Classics. The works listed below have appeared and are on sale; future publications will be aanounccd as ready : ZoucHE, Richard: Juris et Judicii Fecialis, sive, Juris inter Gentes et Quaestionum de Eodem ExpJicatio. 2 vols. 1916. Price, $4.00. Vol. I. A Reproduction of the First Edition (1650), with portrait of Zouche. In- troduction by Thomas E. Holland, List of Errata, and Table of Authors, xvi — 204 p. Vol. II. Translation of the Text, by J. L. Brierly. xvii — 186 p. Ayala, Balthazar: De Jure et Officiis Bellicis et Disciplina Militari. 2 vols. 1912. Price, $7.00. Vol. I. A Reproduction of the Edition of 1582, with portrait of Ayala. Introduc- tion by John Westlake, etc. xxvii — 226 p. Vol. II. Translation of the Text, by John Pawley Bate, xvi — 245 p. Vattel, E. de: Le Droit des Gens. 3 vols. 1916. Price, $8.00. Vol. I. A Photographic Reproduction of Books I and II of the First Edition (1758), with an Introduction by Albert de Lapradelle. lix — 541 p. and portrait of Vattel. Vol. II. A Photographic Reproduction of Books III and IV of the First Edition (1758). xxiv— 376 p. Vol. III. Translation of the Edition of 1758 (by Charles G. Fenwick), with trans- lation (by G. D. Gregory) of Introduction by Albert de Lapradelle. Ixxxviii — 398 p. Rachel, Samuel: De Jure Naturae et Gentium Dissertationes. Edited by Ludwig von Bar. 2 vols. 1916. Price, $4.00. Vol. I. A Reproduction of the Edition of 1676, with portrait of Rachel, Introduction by Ludwig von Bar, and List of Errata. 16a — x — 335 p. Vol. II. A Translation of the Text, by John Pawley Bate, with Index of Authors Cited. 16a — iv — 233 p. Textor, Johann Wolfgang : Synopsis Juris Gentium. Edited by Ludwig von Bar. 2 vols. 1916. Price, $4.00. Vol. I. A Reproduction of the First Edition (1680), with portrait of Textor, Intro- duction by Ludwig von Bar, and List of Errata. 28a — vi — 148 — 168 p. Vol. II. A Translation of the Text, by John Pawley Bate, with Index of Authors Cited. 26a— V— 349 p. Victoria, Franciscus A : Relectiones : De Indis and De Jure Belli. Introduction by Ernest Nys. Translated by John Pawley Bate. 475 p. Price, $3.00. PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Institut Americain de Droit International. Historique, Notes, Opinions. 1 — 153 p. 1916. Price, $1.00. The American Institute of International Law : Its Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations. By James Brown Scott, President. 1 — 125 p. 1916. Price, $1.00. The same in French. 1916. Price, $1.00. Le Droit International de l'Avenir. Par Alejandro Alvarez, Secretaire General. 1 — 153 p. 1916. Price, $1.00. The Recommendations of Habana Concerning International Organization. By James- Brown Scott, President. 1—100 p. 1917. Price, $1.00. Pamphlets The Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations of the American Institute of International Law. Address of EHhu Root, President of the American So- ciety of International Law, at its Tenth Annual Meeting, April 27, 1916, Wash- ington, D. C. 1—10 p. The same in French. The same in Spanish. The same in Portuguese. m